Manga
Written by Shungiku Nakamura, Junjo Romantica: Pure Romance ''began serialization in Asuka Ciel in 2002. The individual chapters have been compiled into fifteen tankōbon volumes by Kadokawa Shoten. The first volume was released on June 2, 2003. As of July 1, 2015, nineteen volumes have been released. The series was licensed for an English translation release in North America by ''Blu Mang''a, an imprint of ''Tokyopop, until Tokyopop's closure in May 2011. As of April 2011, twelve English volumes have been released. An attempt to gauge relative sales of manga titles by online vendors (based on publicly available "bestseller" listings) suggests that Junjo Romantica was the best-selling yaoi manga series of 2008 among online vendors. Volume 10 was #6 in the manga category of the New York Times "Graphic Books" weekly bestseller list for July 11, 2009, and volume 12 was #4 on the same list for September 10, 2010. The manga can often be read online on manga websites where fans are known to often translate released Japanese volumes themselves. Plotline Like the anime, the manga series is divided into various separate storylines for each couple. This consists of the Romantica, Egoist, Terrorist and Mistake couples. Romantica: Misaki is struggling to prepare for his college entrance exams and his chances of getting in are low. To increase his hopes and chance of getting into the school, his older brother arranges for a private tutor to help him out a bit. But Misaki's nightmare is just beginning when his older male tutor, Usami, begins to make advances on him that prove to have less than honorable intentions. Despite telling himself that Usami doesn't have any effect on him, Misaki finds himself getting more and more pulled towards this older gentleman. Egoist: As Kamijou's life reaches an all new low point, he has a chance meeting with a strange young man named Nowaki who keeps appearing in his life - refusing to leave him alone. His name means "typhoon," and he's about to take Kamijou on a whirlwind ride that will turn his life and world upside-down. Terrorist: Miyagi always seems to get by in his life with the latest joke and a bright smile. Despite appearances, however, even he has problems that he refuses to show to anyone. However, his relentless former brother-in-law Shinobu abruptly stampedes into his life - completely adamant that they're destined to be together. Mistake: A sideline storyline regarding Isaka, who helps manage Akihiko's career, and his childhood best friend Asahina. The two have always been best friends since they were children, but they soon begin to develop their own romance. Reception ''Junjo Romantica ''became the first yaoi publication to enter the ''New York Times ''Manga Best Seller list when it debuted in week 28. According to Oricon and DVD sales data from Animesuki, the first DVD for the Junjō Romantica anime adaptation was released on July 25, 2008 and it became a hit, selling 8,406 copies in its first week. It is currently the fourth best selling debut DVD for an anime series of 2008, just after Gundam 00, Macross Frontier and Aria the Origination. It continued to stay on the Oricon anime DVD charts for the second week charting on the top 5 with total sales for the first DVD at 10,986 copies. With these sales, it is currently ranked at number 1 for the shōjo category on DVD sales for the year 2008. According to Oricon sales for the past 5 years, it is the best selling Boys Love anime so far and has performed the best on the charts. The second season's DVD sales have performed very good as well, selling an average of 7,000 to 8,000 copies. This, in which, makes it one of the most profitable anime series of the year. It is constantly ranked very high on Amazon Japan for the DVD category as well. Fan reviews and the responses have been positive, many declaring the anime as one of their favorites. Category:Manga